A mericans go to the polls on Tuesday, with President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry running neck in neck down to the wire. Once again it is an election too close to call -- a reminder of the 2000 race, whose final outcome hung in the balance for 36 days because of disputes over vote counting. One can only hope that nothing of the sort happens this time around -- in Florida or any other state.
To prevent similar confusion at polling stations, election monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe -- which includes the United States -- will be on hand in Florida and other key states. It is of crucial importance, not only to the U.S. but to the rest of the world as well, that the 2004 election be conducted without a hitch.
It is hard to predict with reasonable certainty what kind of verdict America's 218 million voters will deliver. But if only American newspaper publishers and editors were to vote, Mr. Kerry would win big. According to a tally (as of Oct. 25) by the Editor and Publisher magazine -- which keeps tabs on newspapers -- Mr. Kerry collected 125 ballots from dailies, compared with 96 for Mr. Bush. The conventional wisdom, however, is that newspaper editorials have little influence on Americans' voting behavior.